poorquentyn:

racefortheironthrone:

Not sure what you mean. The surviving Karstark infantry came back after Ramsay retook Moat Cailin. The Karstarks who join Stannis never left the North. 

Hmm, the question might be how the Karstark men who broke from Robb and were hunting for Jaime intended to go home after they killed him? Which, I don’t recall, were any of those with Roose went he returned to the North? 

Ah, that makes more sense. Some thoughts:

1. It’s easier for part of three hundred men on horse to make it back into the North than it is for several thousand foot, especially if you can parlay the promise of a bag of gold to passage on a ship. 

2. They’re kind of screwed no matter what they do – their lord just turned rebel, the Ironborn hold the North, etc. So might as well go out having killed the Kingslayer. 

3. There’s a Northern tradition of “going out hunting” in winter that’s basically suicidal. One variant of that is Northern warriors going off to war/raid until someone kills them, in a kind of suicide-by-cop. Hence Roddy the Ruin, Cregan’s army of old men, the unmarried, and younger sons, etc.